Weather Expert: Sub-tropical Storms Being Named to Fuel Global Warming Alarmism

NewsBusters ^ | 5/10/2007 | Noel Sheppard

[Pyro7480]

For weather watchers, the name Joe Sobel should be a familiar one, as he has been with AccuWeather for 35 years, and is a regular guest on radio stations as well as MSNBC.

With that in mind, Dr. Sobel posted an article at the AccuWeather blog Wednesday highly critical of the naming of sub-tropical storms, most recently Andrea.

In his view, this practice – which is only five years old – is exaggerating the number of storms per year thereby adding to global warming alarmism

Sobel began (emphasis added throughout):

Well ladies and gentlemen, we have our first named storm of the hurricane season. Interesting because... it's not yet hurricane season... and it's not a tropical storm! It is a sub-tropical storm, and its name is Andrea. As of this writing, it is about 150 miles east of Jacksonville, Fla., with peak winds of about 45 miles per hour.

After explaining the difference between a tropical and a sub-tropical storm, Sobel addressed the importance of the distinction in this highly-charged, global warming environment:

Back in the old days... and I'm only talking 5 years or so ago... we did not name sub-tropical storms. Names were only given to storms that were deemed to be truly tropical. In the last few years, there have been a number of sub-tropical storms named. Those named storms go into the total of named storms and obviously increase the number of storms that year and consequently increase the average number of storms per year. It has been claimed that global warming is responsible for an increasing number of tropical storms and hurricanes, but here is a reason that the number of storms is increasing that has absolutely nothing to do with global warming. It's because we are mixing apples and oranges and calling them all apples! And, by the way, on that topic, there was an interesting article recently published by the American Geophysical Union written by C.W. Landsea, a very respected hurricane researcher, that says any increase in the number of hurricanes observed over the last 100 years is only the result of the fact that we have more ships at sea, more people living on coastlines, and satellites to see storms now that would have gone unrecorded 50 or 75 years ago.

Think the global warming alarmists in the media will explain this distinction as they go apoplectic over the significance of this first storm?

Don’t hold your breath.

[Pyro7480]

Great point by Dr. Sobel.

[Pyro7480]

Tropical weather ping!

[colorado tanker]

I had wondered about this. Thanks for posting.

[irishtenor]

Wonder what we can do to get a really, really bad storm named after Hillary, and the next one Barak.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Dr. Joe Sobel

AccuWeather Meterologist

Joe was born in Brooklyn, New York on October 16, 1945. One of his duties as head of the Forensic Department at AccuWeather is to reconstruct past weather events and testify in court. Joe has been involved in some well known cases, including singer Gloria Estefan's bus accident and anchorwoman Jessica Savitch's death.

After graduating from George W. Hewlett High School in Hewlett, Long Island, New York, Joe attended the University of Michigan, from which he received a B.S. in meteorology in 1967. Joe earned an M.S. and Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University in 1970 and 1976 respectively. Joe has been a member of the American Meteorology Society since 1966 and holds the A.M.S. Seal of Approval for Television Meteorology.

In 1972 Joe joined AccuWeather, the world's largest commercial weather organization. He started as a part-time employee, became a full-time forecaster in 1976 and was promoted to Expert Senior Forecaster in 1978. The following year, he was appointed Director of Forensic Services. In 1980, Joe was promoted to Vice President and Director of Radio Services. He became a Senior Vice President in 1981. Since Joe joined AccuWeather, he has presented more than a million radio weather forecasts and can be seen nationally and internationally on cable television channel, MSNBC.

Married to Jackie since August 1969, Joe has two daughters: Lynne, born in 1977, and Kate, born in 1987.

Joe loves both watching and playing sports. He is an avid baseball fan (Go METS!) and is a big Penn State fan - especially basketball. When not involved with weather or athletic pursuits, Joe enjoys reading, music and theatre. He is a fan of Stephen King and Tom Clancy, likes music ranging from Jimmy Buffet to Beethoven and attends quite a few Broadway shows.

[Molly Pitcher]

Excellent point by Dr. Sobel

[Brilliant]

“Sub-tropical Storms Being Named to Fuel Global Warming Alarmism”

Based on the title, I thought you were going to tell me that one of the storms was going to be named “George W. Bush,” while another might be named “Rush Limbaugh.”

[AntiFed]

Hey I like Andrea! We’ve been a little dry over here and the fires are creeping in. We need MORE rain!

I love the hilarity of the global warming nuts tho.. if its dry and we have fires, global warming! If its wet because of heavy storms, global warming!

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Of course. It’s to raise consciousness. Also the get a mind-dead public to pay more attention to the useless hype.

Aside - what really annoys me is a newsreader using the personal pronoun “she” to refer to a storm which has a female name. Sorry. A storm is an “it”.

[Gabz]

As of this writing, it is about 150 miles east of Jacksonville, Fla., with peak winds of about 45 miles per hour.

Gee we had higher winds than that earlier in the week and they didn't even call it a nor'easter..........let alone anything else.

[GATOR NAVY]

The AccuWeather forecaster in Anchorage (I can't think of his name right now) who calls in to the morning talk radio show is also highly critical of Global Warming^TM.

Also, who is the "we" DR. Sobel is referencing to-the National Weather Service?

[AU72]

If it helps the GW cause they will start naming High Pressure Zones.

[Cobra64]

Storms are named after females because of their tempers.

[NYFreeper]

Excellent point made by this guy. I too, always thought our more modern weather observation methods were the main reason for the supposed increase in storms. Especially the small TS that lasted a day or two that in the past would have gone unnoticed.

[Lou L]

Sounds like a great resume, and fantastic credentials. Unfortunately, he looks too much like the “Windows” guy in those Apple commericals!

[this_ol_patriot]

Gee we had higher winds than that earlier in the week and they didn't even call it a nor'easter..........let alone anything else.

No but the nor'easter we had about a month ago was due to Gorbal Warming because it rained and blew really, really, really hard and people who can't find their housekeys on a daily basis couldn't remember the last time it did that.

Dr. Sobel can have can have a job predicting lottery numbers for me after he is fired for not towing the leftist political line.

[texan75010]

“After explaining the difference between a tropical and a sub-tropical storm.....”

The difference between tropical and sub-tropical is that a tropical storm has a WARM core and a sub-tropical has a COLD core!!! Kind of pours “cold water” all over their argument for global warming being the cause.

[sticker]

“A storm is an “it””

So are most newsreaders

[massgopguy]

I thought it was because they were unpredictable.

[GOP_1900AD]

It started out as an Aleutian Low, dumped beautiful powder at the few Cali ski areas still open (tough year due to gas prices, many closed early this year, leaving good snow to go to waste). Same deal in the Rockies. A few T-storms out East of there. Got out off the Mid-Atlantic and energized into a Nor’easter. Became cut off and retrograded down toward the GA-FL line. Resumed eastward trend as a normal mid latitude cyclone. Naming it was utter fraud. Climate fraud.